Angelica

Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Prague and The Egyptologist comes a mesmerising, provocative novel. In Victorian London, lowly clerk Constance believes she has found her ultimate husband and protector in Joseph Barton. But after three miscarriages and the troubled birth of their daughter, Angelica, things begin to change. Constance starts to fear her husband’s intentions, his potentially murderous hatred of her, and his efforts to alienate her from their child. Sensing the presence of supernatural evil in the house, she calls upon a spiritualist to save them all. But is Constance right? In four sections, each taking a different character’s point of view, Angelica weaves a tapestry of parallel and sometimes conflicting interpretations of the Bartons’ tragedy. Nothing here is as it seems … Reminiscent of classic horror tales such as The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House, Angelica is also a thoroughly modern exploration of identity, memory, and love.